WHAT IS DYNAMIC STILLNESS?<\/h3>\n
Simply put, Dynamic Stillness is the method of standing in one place while you speak powerfully.<\/p>\n
No movement. No distraction. No showiness needed.<\/strong><\/p>\n You stand still with strong posture, letting your arms, words, face, and voice do the work.<\/p>\n You might think you have to jump around to grab an audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n But most of the time, such motion is off-putting. If people aren\u2019t engaging with your ideas, then jumping about won\u2019t help. You need to turn your ideas and data into captivating content and then deliver it with conviction.<\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re hunched over, swaying from side to side, or ambling aimlessly about the stage \u2014 battling gravity, essentially \u2014 it gives your audience the impression that something isn\u2019t right \u2014 that you don\u2019t really know what you\u2019re doing. That you\u2019re overcompensating for a weak message.<\/p>\n Dynamic Stillness, meanwhile, is a tool you can use to avoid giving that bad impression by harnessing gravity to build a presence.<\/p>\n They stand with their feet shoulder-width apart, planted and even. This stance conveys power, focus, control.<\/p>\n The same is true in basketball. When a player gets ready to shoot a free-throw. They get centered, feet apart, breathe, and then make the winning shot.<\/p>\n The impact of using such positioning when addressing an audience is equally powerful.<\/p>\n I conducted a study on non-verbal cues that was featured in the Journal of Psychology. In the study, I found that switching a speaker\u2019s stance to a position of Dynamic Stillness led to an increase in audience confidence of 32%. A\u00a0third<\/em>\u00a0of the group automatically assumed the speaker on stage possessed greater leadership ability, with no other change than to their posture.<\/p>\n That<\/em>\u00a0is the power of Dynamic Stillness \u2014 and it extends far beyond the stage.<\/p>\n All professions can benefit from Dynamic Stillness.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was a drama teacher in acting school, in fact, who showed me the power of Dynamic Stillness in performance. During a particularly intense scene, I kept trying to\u00a0show\u00a0<\/em>the emotion. My body tensed, my face distorted, my voice was broken.<\/p>\n \u201cDo less,\u201d my teacher instructed me. With each rehearsal, he would repeat it, \u201cdo less.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, I got to the point where I was simply saying the words. No flash, no flair. I stood on that stage, repeating lines like they were on the page.<\/p>\n \u201cThere you go,\u201d my instructor said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s tempting to think of acting as being\u00a0more\u00a0<\/em>than yourself. People throwing their hands up to the sky in outrage, breaking into melodramatic tears, chewing the scenery. But acting,\u00a0real acting<\/em>, is often understated.<\/p>\n Dame Judi Dench once said, \u201cGreat acting feels like doing nothing.\u201d In the early days of her career, she was convinced she wasn\u2019t doing enough on stage. She kept her bag packed next to the exit door during rehearsals, worried someone would say, \u201cYou\u2019re not doing anything! Just get out, you\u2019re fired.\u201d<\/p>\n Seven Oscar nominations, one win, and dozens of iconic roles later, Judi Dench has made quite the career out of \u201cdoing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n All thanks to her commitment to Dynamic Stillness.<\/p>\n There are three common stances that actively detract from a presentation.<\/p>\n A stance that puts all of your weight on one foot instead of balancing between the two. Though you may\u00a0think\u00a0<\/em>you look casual or relaxed, you\u2019re actually positioning yourself as a pushover. Pushovers get ignored.<\/p>\n After a while, leaning becomes uncomfortable. In an effort to counteract this, people shift their weight from side to side. It may\u00a0feel<\/em>\u00a0comfortable, but all the audience can see is a hypnotic motion that will send them right to sleep.<\/p>\n This is a very common posture in business these days, used to appear \u2018too-cool-for-school.\u2019 The feet are planted, but the top half leans back slightly. The James Dean attempts to give off a lack of interest or need for approval. But leaning back forces you to fight against gravity, making you appear weaker.<\/p>\n Avoiding these stances requires you to reset your posture entirely. There are two easy ways to do this:<\/p>\nPicture a golfer, gently tapping in the ball to make a tournament-winning putt.<\/h3>\n
Ultimately, Dynamic Stillness is achieved by proper positioning.<\/h3>\n
THE LEAN<\/h4>\n
THE SWAY<\/h4>\n
THE JAMES DEAN<\/h4>\n